The City of Delta

Delta is one of Ceryx's most tragic casualties of the Severing. Before disaster struck, Delta was a wonder, a shining jewel in the Ceryssian crown. The spires that made up the city of Delta reached to the sky, impossible structures and perfect geometry glittering with red and blue sunlight. Rising up from the shore of Heron Lake, Delta’s arcane architecture earned it the moniker the floating city. In the districts nearest the coast—the marinas, the artisans’ ward, Gamblers’ Row—the grand buildings’ foundations hovered ten feet off the ground, supported by decorative, spindly columns or by nothing at all, to accommodate for the yearly rain-seasons that flood the lake and draw it out under the city. Paved walkways stretched out through the air, too, as do lush tiered gardens, pavilions hosting street vendors and performers, and rail lines and stations for the aerorail that snaked between cities and towns. Delta stood as a monument to the power of united arcanists, a pinnacle of Ceryssian modernity second only in size or grandeur to the capital city itself.

Of course, the mass of magic that shaped the city eventually became its downfall. The Severing sent the floating city crashing down; though some inhabitants from the districts farther from the coast managed to flee safely, the immediate effects of the Severing razed most of the city and its people. Now, Delta lies abandoned, wild and uncontrollable magic surging through the ruined, shattered remnants of what once were architectural wonders. All demographic and historical information refers to Delta before the Severing.

Demographics

The most recent figures on Deltan demographics come from the 710 YC census. Like many major urban areas, Delta's population has consistently contained a higher than average concentration of humans and elves, and a relatively low population of orcs, with those three races making up roughly 83%, 10%, and 6% of Delta's population respectively. The humans of Delta are ethnically diverse, but a majority, about 60%, are Vassian; as the roots of Vassian heritage are widespread throughout central Ceryx, the presence of a Vassian majority is unremarkable. More unusual is the heritage of the elves of Delta: though high elves are generally uncommon in Ceryx, the vast majority of Deltan elves are high elves. The city of Delta alone houses nearly two-thirds of Ceryx's high elves. The small population of orcs in Delta and in other major cities is generally attributed to orcish traditional lifestyles being focused on close-knit society and self-sufficiency; many orcs are uninterested in city life, especially those raised among more traditional communities. As is true for Aotra in general, Otherborn make up a negligibly small portion of the population, estimated at less than a tenth of a percent. By nature of the size of the city's population, there are a significant number of Otherborn regardless of their rarity; in particular, there is at least one well-known lineage of tieflings and one of genasi.
In regards to wealth and class in Delta, the city skews towards the wealthy, more so than most comparable metropolises. Largely because of its status as an old, established city, Delta is well-known for its old-money aristocracy. Though plenty of newcomers rise to wealth in Delta—especially arcanists—the reputation holds strong. At least within Ceryx, only The City of Mereni can claim to be a wealthier city than Delta.

Government

As a major city of Ceryx, Delta lies under the purview of Ceryssian national government. Notably, Delta contributed one of its citizens to the most recent Ceryssian Congress: Amadeu Barrera, an archmage and former architect-arcanist responsible for some of Delta's most impressive structures.
The city's local government takes the form of its senate, a council of fifteen established and well-respected members of the community. Many of them are arcanists, but some of them are nothing more or less than a part of one of the many old-money families that still wield significant influence within the city. The Deltan senate operates both as a legislative body and as a judicial body; the most egregious, complicated, and unique legal matters get taken before the senate for trial. Individual members of the senate also take responsibility for directing one of the many city-run factions and guilds, such as the City Guard or the Alliance of Arcanists.

History

Delta in its current incarnation was founded more than a thousand years ago, in 452 YW. As what was then the nation of Vassia expanded outwards from its center around Mereni, Delta quickly grew as a convenient hub for trade and transit thanks to its location at the mouth of the Heron River; indeed, the city's name was originally derived from its location, Heron Delta, but abridged with time. By around 300 YW, it had become one of the region's largest cities, and the recent discovery of bountiful white mithral mines only miles upriver had flooded the city with wealthy merchants and shippers looking to cash in.
As the city's merchant class swelled into a layer of nouveau-riche socialites, Delta reaped the rewards of its wealth; cutting-edge arcanists shaped its skyline into a work of art, while their patrons commissioned more and more gorgeous public parks, libraries, and theaters. By 200 YW, the city had cemented its reputation as an urban marvel, a capitol of glamour and glitz, but also as a lawless land, one where money could wash away any ill deed. Organized crime proliferated under the weak, thin-stretched senate, all too easy to bend with the promise of gold.
In 191 YW, a new figurehead stepped onto the scene, a staunch proponent of law and order and an outspoken advocate for justice: Saboenea, a sphinx. Within a year of her first appearance in Delta, Saboenea organized a guard that would serve as a check upon the city's lawlessness, a force that would come to be known as the Nightwatch. Unfortunately, little now is known about Saboenea's entrance into Delta, nor how she established herself and the Nightwatch; thirty years later, in 158 YW, a terrible fire consumed and destroyed a massive swath of Delta's Central District, taking with it a portion of the Grand Deltan Library. Among the losses from the library were the historical archives that served as the official record of Saboenea's history within Delta. Now, several hundred years later, many stories about her origins circulate between Deltans, but none can be verified as the truth, and she is notoriously circumspect about her own history. Despite the mystery that shrouds her, Saboenea and the Nightwatch have only grown in influence in Delta; the Nightwatch, with her at its helm, functions most currently as an elite backup force to support the City Guard in the most complicated and dangerous of matters.
The Circle of Nine came to be after another hundred and fifty years, and with it came the establishment of Ceryx as a nation. Mereni, the capital of Vassia before it got folded into the new nation of Ceryx, was chosen over Delta as a capital of Ceryx, largely because of its centralized location, though Delta remained important to Ceryx because of its status as a hub of trade and travel. When Ceryx began construction on the aerorail, one of the most significant of the early technological projects of the Circle of Nine, a line linking Delta and Mereni was the first to be built, completed in 210 YC.
When the Severing occurred in 714 YC, Delta's wonderful arcana resulted in its downfall. Delta was utterly destroyed by the Severing, and its ruin is so hazardous that the many attempts to extract survivors—or corpses—have unilaterally failed. The city sits utterly abandoned now. It is widely believed that by now, there are no living people within the city borders.

Architecture

Delta is a city of towers; its relatively small footprint and population density masks the enormity of the city's vertical space. To house the nearly-a-million people that call Delta home—particularly the half-million that live in the urban center—Delta's architecture relies heavily on pocket dimensions and demiplanes. Most building interiors use demiplanar technology to maximize the amount of available space.
Aesthetically, the architecture of Delta draws inspiration from the traditional Vassian architecture popular in nearby settlements. While most of the major buildings of Delta are products of arcane engineering and thus not constructed in any traditional sense, their forms mimic traditional adobe structures. White exteriors accented with bands of brightly-colored patterns around edges, windows, and doors are popular, as is sharp, precise geometry. As Delta's moniker the floating city hints, much of the city is constructed so as to hover over the coast, allowing seasonal floods to wash up under the city. Some of these buildings are free floating, while others use narrow turned-wood posts as mock supports.

Geography

By the laws of ancient regional superstition, Delta, like nearly all settlements in the area, is built on only one side of a river; the other, as is the tradition, is left to the wilds. The city's namesake river delta is the floodplain where the Heron River rolls into Heron Lake. The seasonal flooding of the river and lake are essential to Deltan agriculture, and the waters that it sits on form the basis of its trade network. The area surrounding Delta is very flat; savanna plains spread out for miles beyond it. Belts of forest stretch out to its north and south, but the valley of the Heron River is mostly grassland.

by Angela Yuriko Smith

RUINED SETTLEMENT
714 YC

Founding Date

452 YW

Type

Metropolis

Population

925,500 (pre-Severing)

Inhabitant Demonym

Deltans

Included Locations

• The Cathedral of Saint Ursola